“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”A. A. Milne

“I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing.”
― Mark Twain

It goes like this: I’m at a school and giving the class a handout. I’m reading it along with them so I can answer (hopefully) any question that arises. The first page is a list of vocabulary words (the day’s “Do Now” is: “Why do you need to increase your vocabulary?”); the following pages (parts A & B) are fill-in-the-blanks based solely on those words. The kids are struggling already. The answers are on the first page given: they just have to read, go back to the list, circle the correct letter or fill in the blank.

Part C is different: it’s a journal entry that asks them to think. All well and good, but then it says (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here):

“Don’t Worry About Spelling.”

That in itself boggles my mind, but it’s not the first time I have been mentally gobsmacked (hmmm..is that possible, since a gob is a mouth? Don’t care: I’ll follow Mark Twain from his above quote. So yes, I am dumbfounded).

I wrote about a previous experience with third graders before: in assisting a student with a written assignment, in my trying to help them correct all their spelling errors, which were many, I was informed that the school administration did not want that. If the word read like it sounded, then that was good enough. I informed the teacher that I’d rather be fired for trying to help the student spell correctly then to dumb down. Nothing more was ever said to me on that subject.

In the case of the above hand out, this was High School. Six and seven grades higher, and “don’t worry about spelling” is emblazoned on the paper. Scary. Just plain old scary.

On a recent interview, I was told by the interviewer that they had to discard so many resumes and cover letters due to the amount of grammatical and spelling (many homonym) errors that a normal spell check system does not catch. I’ve heard this before, and I’ve kicked myself in the head the few times I did not proof read a cover letter as well as possible, catching that stupid mistake that makes me sound like a dolt.

So…the schools say “don’t worry about spelling.” The job force, which is getting stricter and harder to break through, IS looking at these things.

Scary…just plain old scary; and very, very sad.

Public schools need to raise their standards and return to a more traditional, classical educational learning method.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.~Henry Ford

An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates. ~Thomas Mann

I enjoy writing, but hate editing. I’ll do it, but it is a painful experience. From what I’ve read, a good number of you agree. Recently, I wrote two longer stories for submissions as opposed to the shorter/flash fiction I put up on Tale Spinning. For those tales I knew that if I was to have any chance of success they would have to be edited.

Luckily, I had a number of people I could call on to give my work an editorial eye. What I found enlightening was, through five different POV’s (points of views), that all who responded to my call saw something different. Grammatical changes pretty much were the same, with punctuation styles varying from one to the other.

What changed was how they approached the work: solely as Editor; solely as a reader of the genre; or a combination of the two. This allowed me to take what was offered, evaluate what I wrote through others eyes, and then edit myself to the point I felt I produced the best work possible.

To see the results of this: Nyctophilia (entered for the Figment/HarperCollins YA Defy the Dark contest). If the link does not work for you (and I think it only works in the US): go to Figment and type in the name of the story in the search box. I’d be interested in your comments, as I do think this story is publishable. The other story has been submitted, and only time will tell (both submissions had a September 1, 2012 cut off).

I want to thank the following for their time and effort: Golden Eagle; Allan Douglas; Roy A. Ackerman;Lisa Vooght;and someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The links are to their blogs. They are all well written, all interesting, and all very different POVs. Check them out.

Writers:

How do you edit your work?

Do you hate editing your own work?

Do you have Beta Readers/Critique Partners?

Are you part of a writing group?

If you have an editor that you work with consistently, how did you find her/him?

It was the 2012 Memorial Day Weekend, and I get a pleasant surprise: I have been honored TWICE with the One Lovely Blog Award, as passed on to me by Allan Douglas of Simple Life Prattle and The Write Stuff (and fellow Triberr buddy).

How could he bestow this upon me twice? One is for here, Born Storyteller; the other is for my creative fiction blog, Tale Spinning.

The “rules” are simple:

Thank the person who awarded the award (Thank you Allan) and link back to their blogs: Click HERE and HERE

Tell SEVEN things about yourself that no one knows (but two blogs… 14.. but…14? TMI)

Pass on the award to (15) blogs you follow and like/admire/wish they were yours.

I’ll do as many as I can.

So…

Seven Things :

I’ve lived on the East Coast of the USA all my life, but have visited more than half of the states now.

I read SciFi, Fantasy, Thrillers, Mysteries, and then the occasional other book. Existentialism, anyone?

I wish the lyrics to John Lennon’s song Imagine were achievable.

People find me unfocused in my field of interest (the arts); I find myself versatile.

I believe in ghosts, but not vampires and werewolves. Especially not shimmery vampires.

I like both cats and dogs; I do NOT like fish, as pets or otherwise.

I have never gone to a demolition derby or a monster truck thingy; I’d like to, at least once.

In no particular order, blogs I pass this along to, and you should give them a look/leave a comment (tell ’em I said Hi):

You can believe in what you want. As long as it’s not hateful or harmful to others, I’ll even listen to your POV if you promise not to try to ram it down my throat, or try to convince me that your belief is the only right way.

Democrats and Republicans do many wrong things, for the wrong reasons: there are lobbies/big money that have no concerns for the people of this country, only profits.

The blame game is what is hurting this country. I read a series of posts on FB, an anti-President Obama thread, that were volatile and negative spewing. The main thrust was, from the person who started the thread, that he feels all Republicans should say NO to anything coming from an opposing POV.

No listening and judge on individual merits; no attempt to compromise; no attempt to work for the betterment of all the people in the country. Just Say NO was his mantra…and then he and others complained that “the liberals” only spout and don’t listen and run away from a fight.

[Side Bar: As to arguments about Bush Bashing…one thing to disagree with the man, which I do. I have my reasons: my two biggest complaints are: his getting the news of the 9/11 attacks and just sitting dumbfounded in a Kindergarten classroom, not making a move, not directing the country, not showing any action; the second is, when asked about his greatest achievement in office, he talks about a fish he caught. Joke or not, to me, it’s not funny. I’m not even going to go into the economic state of the union he left for whoever won the election to pick up after him. Nope. Not going there.]

Before any civil rights acts, inter-racial marriages were forbidden, as were inter-religious ones. They were, for those days, their own “war on marriage” which, yes, I have seen slogans for.

The President spoke his mind and made a stand: he believes in same sex marriage. He did not say any other state of marriage should be nullified, nor did he exclude anyone. He did not say, in any way, that this was a war on marriage. He did not say we all must believe as he did. Many won’t, and that is their prerogative. He is, if anything, advocating the civil rights of the “rest” of the country for consenting adults in love to get married.

If you don’t want to be married to someone of the same sex, or a different religion, or a different skin color, or a different nationality, then: JUST DON’T. But, don’t impose your own POV on someone else.

Why then, as a straight man, am I so behind repealing an amendment based on hatred and bigotry?

I’m also a JEWISH male, and if anyone wants to talk about history of abuse and hatred against a people, then let’s talk. We got ya beat by thousands of years.

It’s time to let things that are NOT important to the running of a country go, and focus on what we can do POSITIVELY and for the GOOD OF THE PEOPLE. The civil rights of American Citizens are being crushed under foot by those who say they love this country.

You love this country, then show it. Stop forcing your negative religious beliefs on others and do something positive with all that energy.

Fight poverty

Fight human trafficking

Fight hunger

Fight injustice (and you better believe this is injustice)

Fight for a stronger economy

Fight to bring our schools back to a place of prominence

Fight for a way to bring this country together, instead of continuously tearing it apart

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

Coincidences on international workers day:

2011: President Obama announces the death of Bin Laden

Why were we subjected to a long wait of TV news time before he came out to announce it?

There are a lot of “big” events on May 1st (and I am sure you can find more on other days: that is not the point here); I just did not list them all. You can do some of the research yourself HERE. I just find it bizarre that three major events in less than 100 years occurred.

My feeling, and all it is is a feeling, no facts (so, yeah, kindly refrain from nasty comments: I’m allowed my feeling on this matter):

Starting in 1945, it feels like something Winston Churchill would have put forward, using a people’s day holiday to make a huge political announcement. It adds gravitas to the whole thing, big an event as it was unto itself. Someone savvy in PR in Bush’s cabinet could have taken notice of this and used that date to push the (erroneous) message out, bolstering the president’s “history” for future generations. Using the ship he did was overkill, imho. Lastly, with all the Bush bashing, what better day to upstage the 2007 announcement but to bring forward the death of another monster, and then make us wait with bated breath, probably smoking a cigarette and biding time to heighten the effect once announced.

Makes me wonder what the next “big announcement” on a May 1st will be.

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Hi All…I’ve been away since mid March for a variety of reasons. In April, I spent the majority of my time writing everyday for my Tale Spinning blog, creating an interrelated anthology series. Please take a look HERE.

I’ll be back with BornStoryteller The Creative Series (still have guest posts that I never got around to sharing with you) and one or two other series ideas. That will all start soon, and I’ll do my best to keep a schedule going.

Thanks for sticking around, and thank you all for reading (and commenting) on BornStoryteller.

Taking a short hiatus from things can be good, now and then. I’ve wondered what to do with this blog: the guest posts have given me a wonderful respite, allowing me time to get better as well as well lend time to write when I felt like it, as opposed to just churning out something to post.

So…a huge thank you to all who have already guest blogged here, and to the ones that I still have in wait. I’m going to set up that schedule soon.

As to right now, I again find myself questioning directions for the next segment of my life. I am tired of all the negative chatter that surrounds us; doing something, anything, is preferable than sitting in a corner (to me). I am not sure if this is the proper forum for achieving any goals.

Is blogging just another Tower of Babel?

I took on the mantle of blogging just a wee bit more than a year ago: “get an internet presence!” was what my (then, hopeful) agent said to me, as well as others. In that year time, I am still not sure what greater good this has done for me or anyone else. So…

Now that I have that down, I need to take another step back, post the guest posts I have in hand, and figure out “What Comes Next.”

Listen—really listen to someone’s POV. Place your own concerns aside for the moments it takes to really click with where someone is coming from. Communicate back: don’t condemn, place judgement (moral or religious or political) and LISTEN. Ask questions “Why?” or ask for clarification.

Does it take time? Sure, a bit more. But…we’d all be better off if we agreed to really hear what someone else has to say, really try to care why they feel that way.

There are numerous Blogfests running on any given day. Some are ongoing and others are one shots. With all that run, I do tend to pick around the lot, finding the ones that really interest me…and, hopefully, you.

I can’t really pinpoint an exact time when writing became one of my dreams. It feels like it’s always been there, at the back of everything I’ve done in my life. I don’t feel I’ve ever been tied down to wanting to “be” just one thing, ever. When I have done that, I find that I tend to get bored: especially the times when I’ve played the money game (read: non-creative pursuits).

As a kid, I read comics, watched TV and went to the movies. Outside of school projects, I would create little things for myself. Mini-comics were a way to pass time when I was bored in class. I’d take paper and fold it down, and then again, creating a sequential booklet for myself to draw in (lots of stick figures) and write short pieces. These would get passed around to friends later. I don’t remember ever getting caught.

There were stories I wrote for sleep-away camp newspapers, mainly mash-ups (yes, plagiarisms) of others work, combining different elements into one piece. While never criticized for that, I was often praised for “imaginative writing” and writing skills. I knew the truth, and just shrugged my shoulders.

High school changed that. I worked on the DeWitt Clinton newspaper for a year, writing articles, learning the craft of setting up the newspaper from scratch. I was really involved, and was going to be promoted to an editor’s slot when my parents told me we were moving to Westchester County. While my dreams of the paper were shot at that point (the new HS paper was not very open to someone new coming in), I did continue to write.

Off and on, I would write poetry, short stories, begin ideas for novels…and more times than not they would languish, first just as a pile of legal pad paper and then committed electronically and saved. All through this, I was always hoping I’d have my name on a book (or comic book) as a writer. It was a passing dream that wove itself throughout most of my life, a goal I always hoped I’d achieve.

2011 saw a new stage of writing for me. I created my second blog, Tale Spinning, for experiments in creative writing. Starting only in February of that year, I wound up writing close to 200 short pieces of fiction. I’ve now had two short stories published in anthologies, have my own eStory published, received a number of blogging/writing awards, been asked to write a number of guest blogs, and have won a few online writing contests.

Still to come: holding that physical book with my name on the cover in my hands.